Show us your badgers...

[Towlersonsafari]

excellent artice and photos, @inyathiwe have been to a few badger hides, but have also been lucky enough to have a hole in the wire fence where badgers come into the graden to see what bird food is left- we do put a few peanuts down but we watch from the conservatory and as long as we are not noisy, they seem fine- and much more confident than the fox that sometimes visits.

[Dave Williams]

I contributed to this topic four years ago....and what a difference time makes. Back then I'd only ever seen one living Badger and as a result of visiting Kruger NP in 2019 and deciding I needed a trail camera I was soon to discover they visit our back garden...virtually every night! I give them a few peanuts and some dried dog food pellets to supplement their natural diet and now I watch them from our kitchen window.

[Atdahl]

Wow, that's awesome Dave!

[Dave Williams]

I have decided to stop taking photos through the window and moved the camera outside as they are starting to appear earlier while there is still some natural light about.

Badger by Dave Williams, on Flickr

[Atdahl]

Outstanding Dave!

[Zim Girl]

Fabulous picture of a badger!

[Peter Connan]

Beautiful!

[Csaba]

Badger raiding the bird food storage container.

 

 

Not the best quality, I really need to invest in a better trail cam.

[inyathi]

Earlier I offered some advice on how to watch badgers, as I discovered back in July, you don’t need to follow all of that advice, you might just happen to get lucky. Now and again I like to go on a walk with my camera, to take a little exercise and have my camera just in case I see something of interest, if I’m going out on the spur of the moment, because the weathers nice, I can’t always be bothered to change into drab clothing, I will go out in whatever I happen to have on, on this occasion, I had a light blue sweat-shirt on, that I’d put on just because my shirt was largely white and even more conspicuous. When I set off, I didn’t have any intention of looking for badgers, however, I did end up next to the wood where the sett is, that I have visited a few times and where most of my previous shots were taken. Just on the spur of the moment, I went into the wood, not really expecting to see anything, as it is nearly impossible to walk quietly, so any Roe Deer or Muntjac would likely scarper, before I had much chance of photographing them, but I could get lucky or maybe find a fox or something else. Without consciously meaning to go there, I suddenly realised that I had arrived at the badger sett, so I thought, I suppose I could wait and see if they will come out, because I could clearly see, that the sett was still active.

 

I looked at my watch and saw that it was already almost 20:30, and I’d intended to head back at that time, so I thought maybe not, if they do come out it might not be until after 21:00 and I’m really not sure I want to wait that long. Just as I was about turn around head home, I was surprised to see that there was in fact already one badger out and clearly visible. So, I backed up against a tree, stood as still as I could and started taking photos, thinking that they are sure to spot me, because of my pale sweatshirt. Evidently, they didn’t, I did say in my earlier advice that their eyesight is not good, this encounter really proved the point, because I was able to move around a little bit, going from one tree to another a few feet away and back, just keeping still if one appeared to be looking in my direction and they weren’t bothered, they didn’t seem to know I was there at all. I must have watched them for a good 20 minutes taking photos and a little video, standing up the entire time, but I was obviously lucky that the wind was in my favour, had that not been the case, then I am sure they would have caught my sense and disappeared underground, after seeing a number of them head of through the wood to go foraging, I quietly turned around and headed home pleased with my unexpected encounter.     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[offshorebirder]

2 hours ago, inyathi said:

I must have watched them for a good 20 minutes taking photos and a little video

 

I am very jealous - I have never seen a badger.

[Atdahl]

Very cool!  So much different looking than the ones here in the US.

[inyathi]

@offshorebirder

@Atdahl

 

Thanks, it's good to know that in our nature depleted country, we still have some wildlife to be envious of, I think your American badger is solitary, as well as looking quite different to ours, but I'd be happy if I see one, one day. After seeing so much amazing wildlife around the world, it's easy to think our wildlife is a bit boring, it's good to see these wild badgers and remember that we do still have some nice mammals in the UK, worth making a little effort to try and see,

[TonyQ]

What a wonderful sighting!

[Kitsafari]

what a fabulous sighting! very jealous indeed. 

[michael-ibk]

Wonderful!